Bidspirit auction | Handwritten Letter by Rabbi Shimon

Handwritten Letter by Rabbi Shimon Oish to Rabbi Elazar Flekeles, Av Beis Din of Prague, Regarding His Sefer Teshuva MeAhavah. Bound Within a Copy of Teshuva MeAhavah * A handwritten and autographed letter by Rabbi Shimon Oish, one of the sages of Prague, addressed to Rabbi Elazar Flekeles, one of the leading rabbanim of Bohemia and Ra'avad in the beis din of the Noda B’Yehuda. In the letter, Rabbi Shimon offers an answer to a difficulty posed by Rabbi Elazar in his sefer Teshuva MeAhavah, siman 169. At the beginning of the letter, Rabbi Shimon writes: “Greetings to the esteemed Rav, the outstanding and eminent Gaon, the honorable Moreinu Harav Elazar, may he be blessed with life, ” and after presenting his pilpul, he concludes with words of profound humility: “…as one who bows before the might of your noble greatness, and who bows before your vast wisdom, Shimon Oish.” To the best of Zaidy's knowledge, this letter has never been published. It is bound within a copy of the sefer it addresses: Shu”t Teshuva MeAhavah, Volume I, authored by Rabbi Elazar Flekeles. It is interesting to note that in the sefer itself (siman 66), a question is printed from Rabbi Shimon’s father – Rabbi Moshe Wolf Oish – and the following siman contains the teshuva from the author to him. Rabbi Shimon Oish of Prague (c. 1795–1867) , one of the greats of Prague, merited, already in his youth, to receive great praise from Rabbi Shmuel Segal Landau, Av Beis Din of the city, who wrote exalted titles about his wisdom even at a young age. He married the daughter of Rabbi Wolf Hamburg of Fuerth, Rosh Yeshiva of the biggest German yeshiva of that generation. He is mentioned in several letters of contemporaries such as the Maharitz Chajes, Shi”r (R' Shlomo Yehudah Rapaport) of Tarnapol, and others. This letter is from Rabbi Shimon’s early years. It bears no date, but was obviously written before 1826, the year of the author’s passing. In 1809, Rabbi Shimon was only around 14 years old, but already by 1815, he appears as a purchaser of the sefer Shu”t Hageonim Basrai, and thus it can be estimated that the letter was written sometime between 1815 and 1826. ------------------------------------------------- Description of Letter: [1] leaf of paper, approx. size: 22.5 x 19 cm. Description of Sefer: Shu”t Teshuva MeAhavah, Volume I. Prague, 1809. First edition. Contains 211 simanim, including letters from the Gedolei Hador such as the Noda B’Yehuda, Rabbi Shmuel Kalir, and many others. Page Count : [10], 90, [9] leaves. Size: 35.8 cm. Condition : Good. Two holes on title page. A few stains. Bibliography : Stefansky, Sifrei Yesod, p. 160 in the additions.